The Only Use of
antecedent
in
The Great Gatsby
- He told me all this very much later, but I've put it down here with the idea of exploding those first wild rumors about his antecedents, which weren't even faintly true.
p. 101.1antecedents = past actions
Definitions:
-
(1)
(antecedent) something that happened previous to something else; or anything that precedes something
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely and more specifically, antecedent can take on these specialized meanings:
Grammar: a word or phrase that precedes a pronoun and to which the pronoun refers. In She is the best at math in her grade, the pronoun her refers to the antecedent she.
Logic: a condition in a hypothetical proposition such as If all people are moral, then you are mortal.
Genealogy: All of someone's ancestors.
For less common examples, including one in math, see a comprehensive dictionary.